Do You Have Any "Citiots" For Neighbors?

OK - first a confession - I didn't read all the posts, just the beginning and the end. But I have to say that if you read the article "How to make fun of citiots" or something like that from the first post, it acknowledges that many people who move to the country love it and embrace it, but that there are those who move to the country and try to turn it into the city - "citiots." With that definition, I think the offensiveness is gone, kinda. OK, anytime you call names it's not nice, but this wasn't a blanket statement to all of us city folk who move to the country. I did have a neighbor who commented on us "probably putting up bright street lights and big metal gates." It really just baffles the mind of folks who love their country life to have someone move out to the country only to try to change it - that's all... And, no - we didn't put up bright lights or gates, but we did invite that crabby neighbor over to visit us sometime. It's easier to break down those preconceived notions by kindness than by taking offense... Just my opinion... By the way, despite having been at the recieving end of an attack like this, I thought this was hilarious!!!

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So those farmers that you're talking about moved to the city and did the stupid things in the city after they moved there and offended their new neighbors?

Jennifer

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-Northern NYS

sounds to me like you need to have a pig roast

I think more city folks resemble the citiots/city slicker stereotype than rural folks resemble the country bumpkin/redneck. While after moving to Lawrence, Kansas and living in the suburbs so to speak, as well as getting to know the local politics, there are more city folks here who leave me seething than any of the area rural folks.

This afternoon on my way to my wife's office at the hospice she works at I almost had two University of Kansas students become my new hood ornaments on my pickup because they walked right in front of my pickup while I was watching on-coming traffic at an intersection. Had the one not tapped on my hood before I let out the clutch he would have been run over along with his friend. They figured, wrongly, that just because they were pedestrians they had the right of way and were seen. Those are the same kind of folks who cross highways without a care in the world and barely miss becoming grease spots on the asphalt.

These nice city folks are also the ones who create thing such as the Party Cove monstrosity on the Lake of the Ozarks in Missouri, drive their offshore racing boats at full throttle for their fun though creating tidal wave strength wakes. These same city folks think that rural folks drive slow (the speed limit) just to annoy them when actually it is to be careful about the farm equipment or the multiple driveways and rural road intersections that might be in blind curves or turns.

Druggies are evil, no doubt, regardless of where they come from. They are another peeve of mine due to their theiving ways.

It is because of rude behavior and lack of respect that I treat all who have those qualities with the utmost contempt. That is expressed by simply not even offering to help rather than insulting them.

The more I am in the suburbs the less I like the city, especially when I try to keep our houdini of a dog from escaping out the front door. I bungie cord closed the gate to the fenced backyard just to make certain it doesn't get accidentally unlatched. I keep her on a leash because she loves squirrels and rabbits just a bit more than paying attention to my commands. The neighbor next door occasionally keeps his dogs roped when outdoors, though generally they roam in the older development my wife and I now live in. I treat the dog well as it is not his fault his owner is a idjit. That same idjit was at least nice enough to flag down my own dog when she escaped out the front door and I was running after her. He saved her from becoming a squish so he is only a mildly annoying idjit.

Be that as it may, that neighbor does indicate to me how certain habits become so engrained in city folks. They also seem to be so accustomed to "progress" that they cannot tolerate it when there is no perceived amount of it somewhere. Then again, having to repair my wife's car in the driveway of our house, I at least didn't get a visit from the neighborhood association police nor the city police even though it took a few days to do the work and it sat with the rear end up on jack stands in the meantime.

The other neighbor we have is a Korean immigrant and is idealistic, though sometimes a bit untidy (by city standards) but a great horticulturist who does homeopathic and herbal remedy business from her home. Her yard would make my mother go "WOW" because of the variety of plants, flowers and shrubs she has. Yes, she is untidy and has been written up by the city for some of the things she does, but coming from the countryside she really is the least offensive neighbor I could think of having.

Basically, I can see where citiots get their training in how to be annoying to those who live differently than they do. County bumpkins have their share of not so endearing qualities. However, most citiots do things that can be dangerous or very unfriendly to rural residents while what I have done is fairly mild, such as working on a car outside of a garage.

I also see both sides of property rights issues. However, there is also a right way and a wrong way to deal with property lines, livestock and personal usage. I was raised to ask permission before crossing a fence line, and I even asked our neighbor who had the trout farm on an annual basis before hunting season for permission to pursue game onto his land if I was tracking a wounded animal that I shot on my family's land. He chuckled and said of course it is ok, that I didn't need to ask every year, but he did understand why I did it.

I am willing to work with people but there has to be an understanding of respect. My personal experience is that while there are disrespectful country folks, there are, based on raw numbers and percentage of population, more citiots by far. I have experienced first hand the number of people from the city who think that every road must be paved and that every house must have central water and sewer and they must have everything they had in the city. I also know of some rural folks who abuse the laxity of regulations in the countryside.

I try not to complain too much when in the breeding ground of the citiots. Mostly I try to find the loopholes in the bounty of regulations so that I can at least tolerate living here for now without really irking others. I tolerate some of the things that annoy me, but I look forward to the freedom of rural living when my wife and I can build our own homestead.

As for the welcome sheet, I don't find it very offensive at all. I have seen a living example of every stereotype listed on it and it all fits. What gets me is that anyone in the city would get their nose out of joint about receiving one when just about every city resident here does pretty much every single thing on the sheet, though in the city no one complains because everyone does it.

There. I have said my piece for now.

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I would challenge anyone here to think of a question upon which we once had a scientific answer, however inadequate, but for which now the best answer is a religious one. – Sam Harris

So I grew up pretty much in the 'burbs', but an area that was still a predominant dairy region. We all had friends who lived and worked on ranches. I may not be 'born and raised country', but I sure have an ever growing appreciation for the life and lifestyle.

After living in the woods for about 9 years, my wife and I bought a 5 acre rancher two years ago in a neighborhood of 5 acre parcels. This neighborhood has been ranch land going back to the 1850's - we often find old square nails, hand pounded pitch fork tines, and an occasional horse shoe on our property. Many of our neighbors use their land for some level of farming or ranching, and others are content to say they have 5 acres.

Most neighbors would step up in a second to help one another, but there are a few...

One is a hard core, left wing liberal who believes that the American Flag is the icon for George Bush...and George Bush alone. When a nieghbor would place an American Flag on our one lane bridge coming into our private road, she took it upon herself to toss it in to the creek. When our home owner's association discussed voting to place a flag at our entrance, she made it known that her attorneys would empty our reserve account fighting it. On another occasion she collected up a neighbor's friendly wayward dog which was on her property and promply delivered it (without collar) to the Humane Society - at a neighboring town 30 miles down the road. The neighbor never did get their dog back.

Another neighbor across from our driveway are part-timers who live in San Francisco and only spend about 3 weeks here a year. The previous owner of our house had lived here 30+ years and kept a PO Box at the post office. We asked our carrier where to place our mail box, and were directed to place it next to the neighbor's across from our driveway (they prefer to have the boxes blocked together). When our neighbor next came up to visit we received a letter from them essentially saying that we had a lot of nerve to place our mailbox next to theirs - and that having our mailbox next to theirs would cause undue erosion to their driveway next to the mailboxes - and that they prefer to have the 'autonomy' of having their own mailbox alone near the entrance to their 2nd home.

I promptly moved my mailbox several hundred feet away to the next mailbox bank - and we have never spoken with them sense. They wanted that autonomy and all. I did fix their fence for them after a bad storm - no sense having a board down for three months until they came up again.

There are all types out there. It's running across a couple of these types every now and again that make me appreciate the good neighbors and people that my wife and I have in our lives. I don't know that both would be considered citiots, but there are plenty of other unpleasantries that come to mind when people act so unneighborly.

?? This was wrong in your mind - why??
If the dog had no collar/tag, how was she to know who it belonged to?

Maybe it was loaded with fleas - a horrible thing if you have your own pets and are working hard to eradicate them. The last thing you want to do is keep a fleabag hanging around while you try and search for the rightful owner - sweet dog or not.

It's likely that if she took the trouble to go drive 30 miles, this was not the first time he'd been wayward! For some pet owners, it takes a few times of have to to pay "bail" before they fix the problem. They seem to think that buying a better fence is too expensive, until they have to start paying some fines...

The fact that the owner never retrieved the dog also makes me wonder about how committed they were to this pet.

The most interesting thing about this example is that you thought she was at fault. Sure, she could have gone above and beyond, but she didn't.
Still, "expecting" a favor means you fail to appreciate the fact that it is:

A Favor = not required.

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Hut on the Hill Farm
http://www.hutonthehill.org

I live in a rural area and enjoy the city people and others who move or have weekend places here. Most of them seem to appreciate the area even more than many of us locals do. They either like it or hate it, and there isn't much in between. Those who like it help us appreciate it all the more, as we see things through their perspective. Those who hate it don't stay long. The only problem that I see is that many of the new people see things that need changing, and sometimes their approach to getting us motivated is very negative. After all, we are busy people - working, running businesses, raising families, running our kids to their activities - just like city people are. We don't always have time for all the "good" things that the new people think we should be doing to "improve" the area. As one newcomer and business owner who quickly became involved in local government said to me - there are fewer people to do the things that need to be done - volunteer fire and ambulance, boards, churches, organizations - so those who are here have much more to do.

Sometimes newcomers are very heavy-handed and critical. But most of them are a great asset and a help to our communities.

I think, how it was phrased, the poster meant that the neighbor removed the dog's collar and tags from another neighbor's dog before taking it to the animal shelter 30 miles away. That "helpful" neighbor was spiteful as could be and did what she did to emotionally hurt someone she thought deserved to be hurt.

My view? That particular "helpful" neighbor would be run out of the area through whatever means were required. It is one thing to not like a neighbor, quite another to go out of your way to get revenge. After a certain point of trying to get along I stop trying to seek agreements and go to helping that person get out of the area whether they want to leave or not.

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I would challenge anyone here to think of a question upon which we once had a scientific answer, however inadequate, but for which now the best answer is a religious one. – Sam Harris

Reluctantpatriot is correct. The neighbor removed the dog tags, opted not to post a found dog sign at our entrance notice board, did not contact the local Humane Society, did not contact the local pet adoption groups, and of course they did not contact their neighbor - even though we have a phone tree. They removed the tags and drove 40 minutes away so that when the 82 year old neighbor contacted the local groups that would assist him he was not going to find his dog. This was a mean, vintictive act on an elderly couple who has lived in this area a lot longer than she has.

This person later bragged about teaching the neighbor a lesson, but no one was ever able to prove her actions - she covered her tracks well.

I have a hard time believing that people like this exist, but they do.

Those are the kind that have "unfortunate events" happen to them on a regular basis. After the sheriffs department won't handle things through all the legal channels, the backwoods channels are used.

Don't misunderstand. I try the legal channels until I am certain that nothing will be resolved by them, even if it takes several years of trying. After several years, or if the event is egregious enough, other means are found to deal with the problem.

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I would challenge anyone here to think of a question upon which we once had a scientific answer, however inadequate, but for which now the best answer is a religious one. – Sam Harris

I think that's a stretch.
It makes no sense for someone to intentionally remove the tag. What would it gain?
The first thing to do in a lost dog situation is contact all the local shelters and describe your dog - so if you bother to look, collar on or off, it makes no difference.

And another thing... if you live in the county and the nearest animal shelter is 30 miles away - you are fortunate - that's pretty darn close!

"Run her out of town"? Based on your suspicions and no proof?
Wow.













Sorry, this story is fishy.

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Hut on the Hill Farm
http://www.hutonthehill.org

What amazed me was when I try to do things they way they were done before we became so mechanized, that the old timers say why would you want to do it that way? just get a machine to do it. From Laundry to hay from seeding to harvesting , Machines. The concept of the family farm is dead in my "rural farming commuities". The more that can be ripped from the ground faster will make more money to )) What (( ? pay off the loans for those big machines? Pay off the morgages one those acres you didn't need to feed you rfamily and make a small proffit from ? This world seems to think bigger is better. Sometimes just living and appreciating what we have no matter how small is a blessing in and of itself. With all the great things we can do with machines have we become happier as a whole? is it better that people now can work one job to retirement and then start a new career ?

Ok I'm done..

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Reverend George Hoppes

Available to preform Weddings, Blessings and other services in Southern Missouri.
http://ministers.themonastery.org/profile/Hoppes65761

Ummm...pedestrians DO have the right of way. For real. Especially at an intersection, which is where they are supposed to cross the road. And before you start moving, you should look and make sure you aren't going to hit anything. Maybe they thought you had seen them and you hadn't, but that doesn't mean they were wrong for crossing the road.

Minnikin...working with rescues I have heard several stories of people taking off the dog's collar and tags that include phone numbers to contact the owner and bringing the dog to a far off shelter. It isn't that the collar is used to describe the dog, it's that the place the dog was dumped is so far away that you wouldn't think to call them. It would be like someone taking one of your neighbor's animals to a shelter in Buffalo. And without those tags there is no way for that shelter to contact the owner. (While I don't like microchips as a rule, they can be very useful in these circumstances.)

Anyways, I hate these threads. Whenever one of these threads gets posted it really shows the "true colors" of some of the posters.

Kayleigh

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http://kayleighjeanne.blogspot.com

The thing is, I yield for pedestrians when I am easily able to do so. This means I let them cross at designated crosswalks. When they jaywalk or blatantly walk out in front of a vehicle expecting it to stop for them in that situation, no, they have no more expectation of having right of way than a motor vehicle that does the same.

This is a university town and the students, even adults, think that all vehicles will stop for them when they just cross anywhere regardless of the lights or traffic flow. When I don't even see pedestrians, that is when they don't even try to make eye contact or make certain that I see them before walking in front of my vehicle, I cannot stop on a dime without causing an accident on my back bumper. Which am I supposed to do: not run over pedestrians who jaywalked and gave me little to no time to try to stop or avoid hitting them or do I make a sharp panic stop and cause a multiple car pile up right on my back bumper?

The funny thing is, as a pedestrian I generally make certain that drivers see me and I take the conservative route of being very careful when I cross a street, even one controlled by crossing signals. What the two college students did was think they could cross in front of a vehicle whose driver (me) did not see them, did not know they were there and they decided that they had the right of way come hell or high water. Their arrogance almost made them hood blink on my truck.

I take the same view as the bicyclists, scooter riders, motorcycle jockeys and other non four wheel vehicle operators who think they have the right of way come hell or high water. I can adapt most of the time and give them right of way out of courtesy and just watching out for them as they are more vulnerable modes of transport. However, if they act like righteous tools then I cannot help that they put themselves at greater risk.

Back to the thread at hand, I will again state that there are good and bad folks everywhere. That being said, I also see where the citiots get their education from, given how even this small city seems to train up bumper crops of them each year.

he bad manners are learned by living cheek to jowl with so many others who learn by bad example after another bad example. The few good ones get the shaft because they don't conform to the dominant culture. When they are outnumbered and the citiots leave their breeding ground, they outnumber the thoughtful city folks.

The real rural ruffians are fewer in total numbers, but they also learn by bad examples. However, generally I see more country folks who are tolerant and accepting so long as one is not trying to tell them how to live their lives every five minutes.

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I would challenge anyone here to think of a question upon which we once had a scientific answer, however inadequate, but for which now the best answer is a religious one. – Sam Harris

Reluctantpatriot...you said you were at an intersection. That is where pedestrians are supposed to cross, which is hardly jaywalking. You give no indication that this intersection had a sign saying not to cross there. If you had hit them, you would have been in the wrong.

I'm not saying that they were doing it the smartest way possible, just that they did have the right of way. Also, I like your signature. In that universe we would all have a few less neighbors to worry about.

Kayleigh

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http://kayleighjeanne.blogspot.com

When Amos (my late Pyr) was a pup of about 5-6 months old, he followed a neighbor's dog who came through my property and got himself lost. I did what all dog owners do..

1. Contacted all vets, humane society and the local pound.
2. Printed fliers and posted a large reward ($500) for his return.
3. Walked door to door in my neighborhood and gave each neighbor a flier with his info.
4. Went to the local pound daily for the first week to see if he was there.

What happened was he wandered 5 miles away and a lady thought she "liked" him and so chained him to a tree in her backyard. After feeding a Pry for a week, she decided - not so much to like, not to mention a chained great Pyr pup was likely very vocal and destructive to her grounds.

So she called animal control who came and picked him up, but she did remove his collar and tags before handing him over to the a/c folks (he arrived with rope around his neck).

I called as usual asking about a huge white fluffy dog and was told No, he wasn't at the pound, but decided that afternoon to go check for myself and there he was. Skinny, nasty, full of burrs and coated with red dirt..but he sure was glad to see me.

I bailed him out and got the story from a/c about how he came to be in the pound. I never did get his collar and tags back though..lady swore he didn't have them on..even thought the a/c officer told me he watched her remove them.

After that I spent a long time teaching Amos to stay home, and he never got lost again, I also fenced my perimeter of the property with field fence.

But it does happen, depends on who steals the dog or tries to "claim" it.

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Be yourself - no one can tell you that you're doing it wrong!

No - I was talking about farmers living on the farm doing "stupid things" - we all do it. No need to name call people. Some of the best neighbors we have are folks who have yearned for city life and moved to the country. Some of the worst, life long rural residents.

Both are equal offenders. So better to say do you have any "idiots" for neighbors? Doesn't matter where they come from or what their experiences are...

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You shall judge a man by his foes as well as his friends
~J. Conrad

I see what you're saying Beaners- so it's kind of an urbanized version of SSS...

I'm guessing that a lot has to happen before a person gets irritated enough to do something like that.

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Hut on the Hill Farm
http://www.hutonthehill.org

It's not the point that you do things "different", it's when you come to the country and have the mistaken belief that we need to be urbanized. If you want a manicured lawn, big spotlights everywhere, feel the need to complain about your neighbour's "lawn ornaments" (ie, scrap metal, broken down car on blocks, burn barrel), and are horrified that your kids will see animals breeding in the neighbour's field, then you have moved to the wrong place. Honestly, it's not about keeping things the same, so much as not wanting to citify it.

Don't come to the country if you don't like the smell of manure, hate having to wait for a snowplow to get out of your drive, don't like getting stuck behind a tractor hauling a hay wagon, complain about the wildlife that is pooping on your lawn, gripe about the shotguns going off come hunting season, or feel the need to report the schoolbus-converted-to-camper sitting in the neighbour's front yard. Calling the township by-law "police" will not make you a hero in the boonies, it will more likely make you a pariah.

Not to say that there aren't a few times you may have to call by-law enforcement (ie, for trespassers, etc), but don't go overboard.

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"The early bird may get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese in the trap."

Deer and Deer Hunter has an article in this months issue about a guy in michigan who shot a record book buck last fall. Then went and bought his license the day afterwards.... would have gotten away with it except that when the news paper took his picture and interviewed him he reported the date and time he shot the deer. The game warden did a license check and noticed it was issued a day later. he lost the deer, his license for 4 years and was fined 1300.00 for poatching. He had also won some prize money from cabelas which he had to return.

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Justice is the insurance which we have on our lives and property. Obedience is the premium which we pay for it.